Wheels Up
by MACRA
Summary: Wheels up: the moment an airplane lifts off from the runway, the very beginning of a flight. Lena Oxton's favorite part of flying, when she doesn't know what's ahead of her but she knows it will be exciting.


Null Sector had been dealt with, but that didn't mean the mission was over. It was kind of like flying in that way, Lena reflected. Wheels down was not the end of the flight, just the end of the exciting bits. The mopping up here in King's Row was likely to take longer than the actual fighting had. The barricades had to be taken down. The local authorities had to be let in. Angry officials had to be placated, and she certainly didn't begrudge the Lieutenant _that_ job. The best bit was reuniting the hostages with loved ones. The relief she saw on the faces of people who a few hours ago had been losing hope, it made up for the fear and exhaustion of fighting their way in here.

It wasn't all rosy. Some of the hostages had been treated very roughly. Angela had declared that she wasn't going to wait for "the bureaucratic idiots" to give the ambulances clearance to enter the combat zone, and set up a treatment center in the power plant where the hostages had been kept. Lena had been tasked with ferrying supplies in from the Orca, since she could cover the ground fastest.

Five supply trips later, she saw that the ambulances had finally arrived and were taking the worst cases away. Angela was able to jump far enough down her triage list that her remaining patients could probably go home once she was done with them.

Lena zapped into the makeshift clinic at the end of her sixth run. "Here you are. Two cases of those vile electrolyte drinks and one more case of nano-salve, as requested." Angela stepped away from her current patient to relieve Lena of the boxes. Lena glanced over at the patient, a freckled red-haired young woman. A flash of recognition and her mouth went on autopilot. "Oh hi, Emily." Then the rest of her brain caught up. "Emily?" she cried. She took in the bruises, the pale skin, the arm in a sling.

"Careful!" Lena's shock had made its way to her arms, and Angela had to lunge forward to grab the top case before it slid to the floor. Once she had rescued her supplies, the doctor did her own double take. "Emily? You mean _the_ Emily?"

Emily raised the hand of her uninjured arm in a wave and smiled wanly. "Hi, Lena. Fancy meeting you here."

Angela regained her poise first. She broke out an ampule of the nano-salve and resumed treating Emily. "Well, Miss Muir. I'm sure we'd all prefer more pleasant circumstances, but it is a pleasure to meet you. We're all terribly grateful for all you did to help Lena."

Emily shifted in her seat, looking embarrassed. "Anyone else would have done the same."

"Maybe. But you're the one who actually did it. Isn't that right Lena?" Angela glanced over her shoulder. "Lena, close your mouth before you start catching flies."

Lena shook her head. She stopped staring at Emily and turned to Angela. "Doc, is she all right?"

Angela sighed. "She'll be fine, Lena. I promise. Why don't you wait outside while I finish up?"

"But…"

"Please, Lena. It will just be a few minutes more."

Emily gave her a reassuring smile and nodded. Lena didn't feel terribly reassured, but she knew better than to argue. "OK, Doc. I'll be right outside. Just if there's anything you need or anything. You know."

"Lena…"

"I'm going. I'm going."

In the main room of the power plant, outside of Angela's clinic, there were plenty of soldiers and police and paramedics bustling back and forth. Some of them glanced curiously at Lena, but were content to leave her alone. Standing still had never really worked well for Lena, so she started pacing.

Emily had been here all the time, and Lena hadn't figured it out. She hadn't noticed that Emily's text messages had dried up exactly when the hostage crisis started. She'd just assumed Emily had lost interest. Why hadn't she noticed? She should have realized. She should have made to connection. What if the mission had gone wrong? What if Emily had been hurt much worse? Or killed? What if Lena had never found out? What if…

"Hey, there." Emily had come out and was standing there looking at Lena with a half-smile on her face. Her arms was still in a sling, but she had some color back in her cheeks. She was holding a half full bottle of electrolytes. She glanced around at all the people walking past. Lena followed her gaze. The looks they were getting were even more curious than before. "Can we go someplace a little more out of the way to talk?" Emily said.

Lena nodded. "Sure. Over here." She guided Emily to the corner of the big room.

Emily took a swig of electrolytes and grimaced. "You weren't kidding when you said this stuff was vile." She set the bottle down on top of a ledge.

"What happened to you?" Lena asked.

"Oh, the same as a lot of the other hostages. I was in the Omnic's Rights march, so I was right in the middle of Turing Green when it all kicked off. Got rounded up, and here we are."

"No. I mean…" Lena trailed off and pointed at the sling.

Emily looked down at her arm. "It's just a sprain. One of the other hostages in my cell was an omnic who had been trying to get people to safety when the whole mess went down. They were picking on him and I spoke up for him. They didn't like it."

"That was pretty brave."

Emily shifted uncomfortably and grimaced. "Or stupid."

Lena shook her head. "Maybe a little reckless. I wouldn't mind you being a bit more careful. But it was still very brave. The world can use more heroes."

"I don't feel like a hero."

"Real heroes never do."

Emily smiled at her. "Speaking from experience? Doctor Ziegler told me Overwatch might not have even come here if it wasn't for you." she asked.

Lena blushed. "I was just doing my job."

Emily laughed. "Proving both your point and mine."

"I didn't even know you were here," Lena blurted.

Emily raised an eyebrow. "You say that as if it's supposed to make you sound worse. The fact that you got involved without knowing you knew anyone here is more impressive, not less. Anyway, I wasn't expecting concierge service." She sobered up. "I wasn't really expecting any rescue any more. I was just sort of marking time. So thank you."

Lena smiled nervously. _Stop stalling, idiot. Do it now_. Lena took a deep breath. "Emily, I…"

"So you're the girlfriend," said a gruff voice at Lena's elbow. Lena jumped in surprise and turned to see Torbjorn standing there glowering at Emily. Lena clapped her hand over her face. _Aaand I'm doomed_.

"That's right," said Emily. Lena turned and stared at her. She was standing, the hand of her good arm on her hip, looking Torbjörn in the eye, a little smile on her face and one eyebrow arched, as if daring him to make something of it.

After what seemed like an age, Torbjörn grunted, "Hmph. Well I hear you have a level head on your shoulders. You'll need it with _this_ jack-in-the-box." He stomped off without another word.

Emily sagged against the wall, grinning. "Whew. Haven't been through anything like that for quite a while."

Lena looked back and forth between Emily and the departing engineer. "What? What just happened here?"

"I think I just got the ' _Is she good enough for our Lena?_ ' once over. And passed at least provisionally. Though there was a definite ' _If you hurt her, you'll answer to me,_ ' vibe mixed in."

"But…but I only just met him today. He doesn't even like me!"

Emily raised her eyebrows and smiled. "If you say so." Then a worried look crossed her face. "Was I being too presumptuous telling him yes? I mean about us? I mean, we never really said anything and you haven't heard from me in almost a month."

"What? No! I've been wanting to ask you out. I just didn't know when I'd get the chance. To actually be in the same city as you, I mean. This certainly isn't how I pictured our next meeting." She swallowed. "I was kind of afraid you might think _I'd_ presumed too much. That I've been telling people we were a done deal."

Emily looked down away from Lena's gaze, but the smile came back to her face. "I can see how that might worry you, but really it didn't occur to me. It kind of made me happy that he'd jump to that conclusion."

Lena's heart leaped. _You couldn't possibly get a better moment than this_. "So, Emily…"

"AH! LENA OXTON!" Emily jumped as Reinhardt's below echoed around the power plant.

Lena closed her eyes and counted to three before turning and giving him a crisp salute. "Yes, sir. What can I do for you?"

"You should call me Reinhardt. Unless you want me to call you Cadet Oxton."

"OK, si… OK, Reinhardt. What can I do for you?"

"Not a thing." He clapped a large hand on Lena's shoulder. "It occurred to me that you have been having a vexing time of things lately. You went straight from your rehabilitation and training into this mission. You haven't had any down time. And since we are already in your home city, I took the liberty of contacting headquarters to request some leave on your behalf. It has been approved." He turned to look at Emily and made a big show of noticing her. "Oh, hello young lady. I didn't see you there."

Lena took a deep breath. "Sir…"

"Reinhardt," he corrected her automatically.

"Reinhardt, are you pretending to be surprised to find Emily here talking to me?"

He sagged slightly. "All right. You have found me out!" Lena risked a glance at Emily. The woman was biting her knuckles, apparently trying not to laugh out loud. "A little bird told me of the presence of your lady fair and suggested you should get some time off. Naturally, I agreed. And may I say," he added, bowing in Emily's direction, "it is an honor to meet you at last, Miss Muir."

Emily stopped biting her knuckles and managed a slightly squeaky, "Thank you." She took a deep breath and continued in a more normal voice. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." A twinkle came into her eye. "Which little bird?"

"Pardon?" Reinhardt said.

"Which little bird told you I'm here?"

"Ah! Actually it was both of them. Angela and Torbjörn. Independently." He beamed at them. "And now, I shall leave you to your conversation." He gave another bow and walked off.

"Bye," Lena said, giving a little wave.

Emily had her hands over her mouth and looked a little red in the face. With visible effort she regained control of herself. "Anyone else I should expect dropping by to say 'Hello'?" she said, her eyes twinkling.

"That's your lot, unless they decide to fly someone in special from Gibraltar for the occasion," Lena answered. Emily snickered. "So, we might as well make it official," Lena continued. "I was actually planning to say this even before all of Overwatch decided I needed a push. Would you like to go out for a drink and dinner or something? Apparently I have some leave coming up."

Emily gave her a broad smile. "Lena, I thought you'd never ask."


End file.
